Lake Shore Limited

The Lake Shore Limited is an overnight passenger train between New York-Penn Station or Boston South Station and Chicago Union Station via Albany, Buffalo, Erie, Cleveland, Toledo and South Bend(where Notre Dame University is located) which is owned by Amtrak.

The ancestors of Lake Shore Limited were the New York Central railroad who instead of running from NY City's Penn Station to Chicago Union Station it ran from Grand Central Station to LaSalle Street Station. In 1971 Lake Shore Limited was bought by Amtrak for $2 Million with support from the state of Ohio.

The current departure time from Chicago Union Station is 9:30 P.M but Amtrak is thinking of making an earlier departure time.

The café car on the Lake Shore Limited may be converted into a Dining Club Car where it will have more items, foods and open 24/7.

Amtrak considered rerouting Lake Shore limited from Chicago Union Station to Detroit, Michigan but rejected the idea.

The train from NY-Penn Station to Chicago has a baggage car, a café car, two Viewliner sleeping cars for extra $$ and five coaches. However, the train operating Boston-Worcester-Springfield-Albany-Buffalo-Erie-Cleveland-Toledo-South Bend, Indiana- Chicago has a baggage car, a Viewliner sleeping car, two coaches and a dining car.

The distance from NYC to Chicago is 954 miles(1,540 kilometers) and from Boston to Chicago is 1,006 miles(1,622 kilometers). From NYC to Poughkeepsie which is about 82 miles(132 kilometers) Amtrak's Maple Leaf, Ethan Allen Express, Adirondack, Empire Service and Lake Shore Limited share tracks with Metro-North's Hudson Line while the Amtrak trains extend further north through northern Duchess County and Columbia County into Albany. Later after Schenectady, NY the Ethan Allen Express towards Rutland and the Adirondack towards Montreal separate from the Empire Service towards Niagra Falls, Maple Leaf towards Toronto and the Lake Shore Limited towards Chicago.

Lake Shore Limited runs as Train 49 while heading from NYC-Chicago and Train 48 on the return trip. Journey time to Chicago is about 19 hours from NYC and 23 hours 45 minutes from Boston.